Gardener who lost job cleared of spray attack

A gardener accused of poisoning a retired high court judge's cherished flower border because he was upset at being sacked was cleared by magistrates yesterday.

Peter Hancock was accused of causing £500 damage to a border and lawn at Sir Richard Tucker's Cotswolds estate following a falling-out with the judge's wife, garden designer Lady Jacqueline Tucker. Hancock, who worked for Sir Richard for 20 years, admitted spraying the lawn and plants with mosskiller but said he had harmed them by accident before he was sacked.

Gloucester magistrates were told that Hancock, 45, had tended plants and lawns at the Tuckers' £1.5m home in the Cotswolds once a week for more than 20 years. But he did not see eye to eye with Lady Jacqueline and was sacked.

Two weeks later, the Tuckers returned from holiday in the south of France to find a flower border, including spectacular elephant ear plants, and grass verge looking very sorry. Sir Richard called in the police.

The retired judge told magistrates Hancock was "temperamental and moody". He said: "He had to be handled with a velvet glove. I sacked him because he became very moody and his attitude to my wife became aggressive."

The court heard that Sir Richard's friend Kenneth Ryland claimed to have seen Hancock spraying his former employer's plants during his holiday.

But Hancock told the court he had sprayed the plants in good faith before being sacked. He returned to spray fertiliser on the area to try to sort the problem out while the Tuckers were away, which was when he was spotted by Ryland.